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As one matriarch departed, a new one was crowned in Mississauga on Monday.

Bonnie Crombie rode her momentum in the final stretch of a closely contested race to replace the beloved Hazel McCallion and begin a new era for Canada’s sixth-largest city.

The race was touted by many as the one to watch in Greater Toronto and Mississauga’s first real mayoral race in 36 years. under McCallion, who always won in landslides, decided to retire at age 93.

“I ask that you please join me in recognizing Mayor Hazel McCallion and thank her for all that she has done for our city,” said Crombie, flanked by her Polish immigrant mother, Veronica Sawarna, husband Brian, and their children, Alex, Jonathan and Natasha, on stage at her victory party at Mississauga's Polish cultural centre.

“You have my commitment that we're going to honour her legacy and continue to build a great city...We have an opportunity to rewrite, reinvigorate. We have limitless potential and together, I know we will achieve greatness.”

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Knowing she’d have huge shoes to fill, Crombie, 54, a one-term Mississauga city councillor and former Liberal MP, vowed to create her own legacy by investing in the city’s infrastructure and stimulating economic growth through “smart-growth” principles.

Crombie said both she and Mississauga owed a lot to McCallion.

“Hazel MaCallion has taken our city from farm fields and fruit trees to the sixth largest city in Canada and an economic powerhouse in North American,” Crombie told more than 500 supporters.

“For many, she has been the only mayor they have ever known and her story is truly the stuff of legends. She has been a mentor to me and I am proud to call her a friend. I cannot thank her enough for her support.”

She also paid tribute to her arch rival.

“I want to thank my opponent, Steve Mahoney, for his contribution to this campaign and to the debate we have had in this city,” she said.

“Although the campaign was heated at times, Steve was always a gentleman and did not allow our campaign to become personal.”

While Crombie’s victory wasn’t exactly an upset against seasoned politician Steve Mahoney, she had lagged behind him in polls until an endorsement by McCallion boosted her campaign in mid-October.

Mahoney, 67, a former Mississauga councillor and Liberal MPP and MP, had been deemed the one to beat as he garnered endorsements from three major Mississauga-based unions: CUPE Local 966, OPSEU Local 277 and ATU Local 1572.

Mahoney congratulated Crombie and said, “Mississauga voters have made a decision and I accepted it.”

He also had the support of some Mississauga political heavyweights from across the spectrum, including Conservative MPs Brad Butt and Bob Dechert, Liberal MPPs Harinder Takhar and Bob Delaney, as well as five of the city’s 11 councillors.

Early public polls had shown Crombie trailing Mahoney, but the game changed overnight when McCallion said at a public event, “I say to you, look at the programs — and you have to — of the chief candidates that are running, and I have every confidence that when you review it, you will vote for Bonnie Crombie.”

Those words caught the ears of many Mississauga residents as a subsequent poll showed Crombie leading with 56 per cent, compared with just 31 per cent for Mahoney.

One factor that made the Mississauga mayoral race so tight was that there was little to distinguish the two frontrunners, who had similar backgrounds and almost identical platforms.

Both candidates could claim name recognition in Mississauga, and both offered platforms focused on improving public transit, tackling the city’s growing traffic woes, holding tax increases within the inflation rate and intensifying city-centre developments.

The fine print of their transit and transportation plans, however, did look a bit different.

While Crombie’s “Mississauga Moves” plan vowed to invest in the existing MiWay system and GO services, Mahoney’s “Move Mississauga” plan also proposed five local high-occupancy-vehicle (HOV) corridors to ease traffic.

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